Russia urges Assad to talk to opposition

RUSSIA is urging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to meet the opposition and keep all options open for a transitional government.

The call came on Friday as Moscow tried to save the tattered peace process by hosting a top Assad envoy and planning a meeting on Saturday with Syria peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow won't be backing international calls for Assad to step down and wants the Syrian people to decide their country's fate.

But he emphasised that Moscow wanted Assad to put all options on the table after 21 months of violence and more than 45,000 deaths.

"We actively encouraged ... the Syrian leadership to maximally put into action its declared readiness for dialogue with the opposition," Lavrov told reporters, when asked about his meeting with Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad.

He said Russia hoped to see Assad's government "underscore that they are open to discussing the widest range of items in line with the agreements reached in Geneva on June 30."

That accord - rejected by the Syrian opposition - sought to quickly establish an interim coalition government but made no direct call on Assad to step down.

Russia has been chastised by Western and Arab nations for continuing to supply Damascus with weapons and refusing to accept that no solution was possible with the regime still in power.

Yet the West lacks direct access to Assad and needs Russia to tell the regime that its days are numbered.

Moscow is now moving to distance itself from the rulers of its last big ally in the Middle East.

President Vladimir Putin has twice this month said Moscow has no intention of propping up Assad.

Officials have confirmed preparations for an evacuation of Russian nationals if the regime falls.

The armed opposition is making gains and Moscow admits that Assad's forces may not hold out for much longer.

Efforts to revive the peace process will continue in Moscow on Saturday following Brahimi's visit to Damascus for talks with both Assad and the opposition.

Brahimi has been discussing the details of a transition government with full powers to effect "real change".

Yet Lavrov stressed on Friday that all peace efforts were futile unless Western powers impressed on the opposition the need to engage in talks that left open the possibility of Assad hanging on in an interim basis.

Moscow is seeking talks with the opposition national coalition. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the RIA Novosti news agency the talks with National Coalition head Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib could take place in Moscow or at a foreign location such as Geneva or Cairo.

Meanwhile Syrian warplanes launched air raids in Damascus province on Friday after overnight bombardments and clashes across the country, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.

"The air force for the first time attacked the Assal al-Ward area in the Kalamun region, killing one civilian, wounding dozens and destroying several homes," the group said in a statement.

The Observatory also reported fighting and bombardment in several districts of the capital overnight.

It said several rockets hit the Qaboon district in the northeast of the city and that clashes between rebels and the army erupted in the southern neighbourhood of Qadam, which was also bombarded.

Fighting also took place in southern Damascus in Daraya, which Assad's forces have been trying to retake for weeks, the watchdog said.

There were also clashes in Yalda in the south and Douma in the northeast, as well as an attack on a military position northeast of Damascus between the provincial town of Irbin and the suburb of Harasta.

Elsewhere, a sniper shot dead a man in a Palestinian refugee camp in Daraa in the south, and fighting was also reported in areas near the border with Jordan, the watchdog said.

In the north, clashes took place in several neighbourhoods of the country's second city Aleppo, including around a military compound besieged by rebels, and several districts of Deir Ezzor city in the east were bombarded.